QMI Agency

Stephen Colbert has come out strongly against Cardinal Marc Ouellet to replace Pope Benedict, who resigned from the papacy Monday. The TV satirist's reason? He's Canadian.

"Cardinal Marc Ouellet is also a contender with only one major weakness: he is a Canadian," Colbert said on his late-night show Monday. "The pope cannot be polite. 'Sorry, but I think God might not want you to use a condom, eh,' won't work."

Colbert also objected to Ouellet on the grounds that the pope's iconic staff shouldn't change. "Who wants a pope whose staff looks like this?" he said, showing a photoshopped image of Ouellet dressed in pope robes and holding a Team Canada hockey stick.

Ouellet, No. 3 at the Vatican, is the head of the Vatican's office for bishops and widely believed to be among the top contenders to replace Pope Benedict.